National English Level Test Standard Course - Level 1-B (2006 Edition)

Author: Ministry of Education Testing Center / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: The National English Proficiency Test (NEPT) consists of five levels, with Level 5 being the initial level. Level 1 (B) is an auxiliary level to Level 5, with slightly lower requirements than Level 5, focusing more on oral communication and basic daily interaction needs. It is suitable for the widespread promotion of everyday English usage. To meet the training and learning needs of the Level 1 (B) exam, the Ministry of Education Testing Center has compiled this textbook based on the requirements of the exam syllabus. Starting from the actual needs of English application among test-takers and the practical possibilities of language learning, the textbook adopts a pragmatic approach of "what is not done enables what is done" to find the optimal balance between "breadth" (the extent of communicative domains) and "depth" (the level of communicative complexity). Specifically, the textbook covers a wide range of topics but keeps the communicative level in each domain relatively shallow, ensuring that test-takers can handle simple communicative needs in those areas. For this purpose, the textbook summarizes 16 communicative topics, with dialogues and short passages using only about 600 words. Each communicative topic forms a unit. Each unit includes:
1. Dialogues: Based on the actual needs of the communicative topic, this section contains 2–4 simple dialogues, all using common basic expressions.
2. Short Passages: Each unit has one short passage, approximately 40–120 words long. The passage generally supplements or extends the content of the unit's dialogues.
3. Words and Phrases: These are the new words (including words that appeared in previous units but have different meanings in this unit) and phrases introduced in the unit's dialogues and short passages.
4. Notes: The notes explain the key and challenging points of the unit and also provide additional common expressions related to the communicative topic to broaden students' knowledge.
5. Exercises: The exercises are designed to focus on the key content of the unit. For the convenience of test-takers preparing for the exam, most question types align with the exam syllabus. The standard answers to the exercises in each unit are provided in the appendix of the textbook.
Two special notes:
1. Pronunciation Issues: Considering the varying proficiency levels of learners, the main body of this textbook does not include pronunciation teaching and practice. The phonetic chart listed in the appendix is intended to guide teachers to teach flexibly and supplement accordingly.
2. Grammar Issues: The textbook primarily aims to develop learners' communicative language skills and does not focus on grammar teaching and practice in the main body. However, basic grammar knowledge remains essential in the process of developing communicative language skills. Therefore, a concise table of fundamental grammar points is provided in the appendix of the textbook for reference by teachers and learners.